Biting the hand of Project Fear

The Walk of Shame

It’s yer actual 12th of July today, the hotspot of Orange hate. Over the past few days Northern Ireland and parts of Scotland have been subjected to a celebration of “Loyalist culture”. It’s always a good and positive thing for any community to celebrate its culture, the problem is that what passes for Loyalist culture seemingly consists of burning symbols of all the communities that Loyalists despise. Those would be, Irish and Scottish Catholics in particular, Catholics in general, gay people, black people, Muslims, Eastern Europeans, Europeans in general especially the Catholic ones, Scottish independence supporters, Celtic language speakers, anyone who supports a Scottish fitba team that’s not Rangers, people who believe in dinosaurs which aren’t actually Scottish Tory or DUP policitians, and anyone who doesn’t tie up their budgie’s swing on a Sunday so that it can’t break the Sabbath. So if you’re a gay socialist from a Catholic Eastern European country with a season ticket to Parkhead and a free swinging budgie which isn’t a euphemism, you can expect an especially warm welcome in East Belfast. As in, a bit of a roasting.

The 12th of July is the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne, when the Dutch King William of Orange defeated the supporters of King James VII and II and thus deposed a Catholic monarch. Ironically, it was Billy who enjoyed the support of the Vatican, and although he’s since become a symbol for sectarian homophobes, there is fairly substantial evidence that he had a series of male lovers. Pope Alexander VII was a close ally of William of Orange as the Papal States at the time were opposed to the attempts of France to establish its dominance in Europe and William was one of the papacy’s supporters. When he defeated James at the Battle of the Boyne, the Pope ordered the bells of the Vatican to ring in celebration.

What passes for Loyalist culture is a wrung out and dessicated version of historical truth, which has been cooked over the centuries so that only the hatred and resentment remain. One of the modern targets of Ulster Unionists is their implacable opposition to an Irish language Act in Northern Ireland, which would give legal protection and status to the Irish language which was once widespread across Northern Ireland just as it was elsewhere in the island. But the so called Loyalists of Northern Ireland are ignorant of their own history. The Irish language is as much the cultural property and patrimony of Ireland’s Protestants as it is of Irish Catholics. Language isn’t determined by religion. If you’re going to have an annual parade to celebrate your culture and history then maybe you should be arsed enough to find out what your culture and history actually is. It’s not like the information is difficult to find.

The Scots Presbyterians who settled in Northern Ireland during the Plantations in the 17th century came predominantly from Galloway and Ayrshire. At that time those parts of Scotland were mostly Gaelic speaking, and they spoke a dialect of Scottish Gaelic which had more in common with Irish than most of the surviving dialects of the language do. One of the first Presbyterian ministers ordained in Ireland, a certain Jeremiah O’Quin from Bushmills in the north of county Antrim, was a native Irish speaker who was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1647. Presbyterian services were conducted in the medium of Irish throughout the next two centuries. One of the first books for people who wished to teach themselves Irish was written and published by a Presbyterian minister. The Rev. William Neilson of Kilmore in County Down published An Introduction to the Irish Language in 1808. It was based on the speech of his own parishoners. In the 19th century there were Presbyterian schools in the Glens of Antrim and Tyrone and all across Northern Ireland which taught Irish speaking Presbyterians to read and write with the aid of the Irish language bible. For further information see http://www.presbyterianhistoryireland.com/history/presbyterians-and-the-irish-language/

Modern tribalist Loyalists are not loyal to their own history. They’re loyal to a perverted version of history from which uncomfortable truths have been expunged, leaving nothing but a barren wasteland on which a pile of wooden pallets bearing Irish flags, rainbow and EU flags, and racist slurs against black footballers is set alight once a year. It’s a culture which seeks to ingratiate itself with an establishment which treats it with contempt. It’s the culture of a sectarian statelet which was carved out of Ireland on the basis of bigotry and which systematically discriminated against the minority community in order to ensure that they remained a minority. Protestant preference in jobs, housing, education may be a thing of the past, but any community which has historically enjoyed privilege sees any equalisation of the playing field as a form of oppression. Those most likely to cry victimhood are those whose position depends upon the victimisation of others.

When they do embrace a symbol of something that they identify with other than the British establishment and its monarchy, it’s the flag of the racist American Southern Confederacy, or even a swastika. This is not a culture that looks outwards to embrace the world, it’s a culture that retreats from it and hides away behind a barricade of hatred and suspicion. Deep down, what passes for Loyalist culture is animated by the terror that if ever they concede that they are no longer dominant then Catholics will treat them the same way that they’ve treated the Catholic community.

This annual hatefest is condoned by Scotland’s Conservatives. They turn a blind eye to it. They dog-whistle in support of it. The Scottish Conservatives are riddled with sectarianism because historically they were the party of the Protestant Ascendancy in Scotland. For much of the twentieth century, the Conservatives in Scotland were able to secure working class votes on the basis of sectarianism. They were the party of Protestant preference. They were the political wing of the Orange Order and avid supporters of their annual walk of shame.

Over recent years, since the rise of the independence movement, the Scottish Conservatives have attempted to build on those roots in an attempt to create a bulwark against the rising tide of independence. So we get Scottish Tory MSPs tweeting about “the Queen’s Eleven”. We get Scottish Tory politicians with a history of sectarianism in social media. We get councillors who are members of the Orange Order. What we don’t get is an unambiguous statement from the Scottish Conservatives that they condemn and disavow Orangeism and its annual parade of ahistorical malevolent exclusionary bitterness. It’s time for the Tories to disassociate themselves clearly and unequivocally from the big drum of hatred, to apologise for their historical role in promoting and maintaining sectarianism, and condemn those amongst their elected representatives who indulge in the dog whistle of bigotry. When, and only when, that happens, will the Scottish Tories be able to preach to us about the evils of division and divisiveness. I’m not holding my breath.

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64 comments on “The Walk of Shame”

Saw photographs on wings-utterly foul ,abusive and abhorrent. Papers appear to be saying all the marches here were just dandy and well behaved .
When I came to Glasgow to college my first Saturday was the flute brigade – something not experienced in my youth in Aberdeen – tried to cross the road and was hauled back by a stranger who told me the guys with the staff were entitled to hit me.Ithought the Police would intervene and was told that wasunlikely.

Well said! Every Orange supporter I have ever met has been at pains to tell me what and who they hate and nary a word about what / who (if anything / one) they love. They need to learn that hating another person (or group of people) is like taking poison yourself and expecting the person(s) you hate to die.

Ah yes,the 12th of July,Danny’s Inferno and the start of the shooting season in NI (just without the grouse).
What is it with Celtic unionists (are there any other kind?) that refuse to acknowledge their Celtic identity and any other as we have seen with their support for Brexit.
No,it seems that,in their view,unless you identify with the London establishment,you are not worth the candle.
Unionists are now being seen as the lunatic fringe who support xenophobic bigotry and many other forms of that art.
Britain’s reputation as a sanctuary for those who are oppressed has gone down the pan,thanks to the selfish politicking of England’s Tories who have unleashed the forces of darkness.
They will oay heavily fir this in the longer term.

I’ve just looked at all the photos on WoS and you know, above anything else, they just make me feel desperately sad that supposed human beings can actually behave like this. I’m becoming more and more afraid about what the future holds for my lovely grandchildren.

As we see over the years in this and indeed extreme religious views, extreme political views etc. etc. there are those amongst us who never question, who never understand, who hide in a group of human hatred.

Just like some of us are more disposed than others to get caught on drug addiction I have always thought others are disposed to being blinkered and easily led, those with closed minds and low intelligence. Yes low intelligence, how else can you explain being so stupid to follow groups that shout hatred.

Unionism and the waving of the Union Jack are for some a toxic brand that is best rejected by other supporters of our lovely ‘beneficial Union’ lest they get tarred with the same brush.

Bringing bigotry into the mainstream. As promoted by Ruth Davidson and the propagators of the myth of the ” Ulsterisation” of Scotland ( that means you Torrance ha numpty ) . Part of a strategy to promote and foster deeper divisions to derail self determination.

There’s another problem for ruthie besides the bigotry what are her lot to do if england throws another general election it’s rumored the torys up here don’t want one as with indyref2 they fear losing it but if the English get one she has to defy england to stop it and Murdo carlow fluffy Jr and the rest up here would have to as well or they let it happen like good obedient dogs of westminster they are

See them marchin’ doon the road, wi’ their flags an’ drums an’ flutes,
Wi’ their bowler hats, cheap nylon shirts, the caperin’ galoots.
See their twirlin’ batons as they toss them up on high –
The bigots are a’ oot in force because it’s Twelfth July

My family were plantation Scots who returned to the east coast of Scotland and intermarried to Catholics, Episcopalians etc. Indeed my surname is from Ayrshire.

You’re quite correct to factulize the dynamic of King Billy’ wars in Ireland. What is missing in the Orange historiography of William is that he was hated as a King in Britain and Scotland specifically. Remember he was responsible for the Massacre of the McIans at Glencoe; the failure of Darien and God’s wrath for the famines that blighted Scotland during his reign.. “King William’s ill-years”.

Ultimately he did not preserve the Protestant settlement on Britain ( or more correctly the Presbyterian settlement in Scotland as opposed to an Episcopalian one) since this would have been overturned by a Jacobite victory during the 1715 or 1745 nationalist risings.

I don’t oppose Orange an marching but I don’t know what they are marching for and I suspect neither do they.

Thanks Paul, for a superb article. Fortunately we know nothing of those 12th July marches etc. in Sutherland and Caithness………and long may that remain the case. I found the scenes on Wings quite disturbing. Christians?

What is so ludicrous is that the most rabid of Scottish Unionists, you know the ones who sing ‘God Save the Queen’ at football matches, are the same ones who show their respect for the Union, and their regard for their fellow citizens south of the border by wrapping themselves in Union Jacks then travelling to English cities and smashing them up, fighting with everyone and terrorizing the natives. Rangers fans have done this on every occasion they have played in England – but they still love the Union. If only they were as interested in the future of Scotland as they are in the future of Northern Ireland.

Well observed,m boyd. I’m preoccupied with family at the moment. Back later. Only to say that the lads and lassies who march and who build their lives around this or any other ’cause’ are victims.
WATP Tomkins, Murdo The Queen’s Eleven Fraser, James OBF ‘Up the ‘Ra’ Kelly, and ‘Fighting Forces’ Davidson stir up hatred and division to line their own pockets; nothing else matters to the Gravy Trainers.

Ruth Davidson, heid bummer of the JockBrit Tory DUP faction in Jockistan. The JockBrit Colonel Bawjaws catspaw of uber AngloBritNat lebensraum on these islands with pretensions of reconquest elsewhere via the British Empire Part 2:0.

Murrrdo Fraser the prime roarer for the bigoted Brit bears aka the Queen’s Eleven supporters in the pig-ignorant stands belting out bile towards all and sundry out with the parameters of their hatred driven “supermen” enclaves and exclaves of Anglo ubermensch towards aye other untermensch, as they neanderthal perceive it, across this world and universe (my sincere apologies to our Neanderthal forebears).

Jackson “The Jackal” Carlaw the sleekit carrion like feeder on the flesh of the Scots and all dispossessed with his snarling, sniggering maw of a gob yapping and hingin’ roon the edges seeking a big yin’s kill to insinuate his incisors into.

Tompkins, the slithering Uriah Heep couching his vile opportunism and lack of moral compass in pseudo-legalese.

Mundell as a Herod-Pontius Pilate combo but even more greasily, hand-wringingly so.

The whole JockBrit Tory mob of vultures mobbing about their intended Scottish victims regardless of innocent casualties as they will do just as well for din dins.

JezzaBrit and his La Dug Yoon pack – the BritNat beta pack – to the Tory alpha one attempt to devour us whilst the Kelty Bus Conductor’s feral, outcast, remnant of rejects wi’ scabby coats slaver about on the distant fringes of the action seeking gristled titbits rejected by the carnivores up the food chain.

Thank you WGD …spot on as usual..I watched the OO marching when I was a member of the Catholic community much despised by the marchers. I could never quite get the OOs supposed links to Christianity. Love thy neighbour as thyself was not top of their values list.

I really do question the support given to this organisation by the lovely Ms. Davidson and Dugdale. On Saturday 2 07 17 I witnessed a young man lying dead drunk in Cambuslang Main Street….nearby lay his discarded Union Jack….his big pal lurched from a nearby pub carrying a huge Union Jack. He just about managed to stand and shout at his pal to get up. The prostrate young man was cared for by folk from a nearby chemist. Several passing children observed this drunken farce.

Thank you Ladies for enriching our community with your political tactic of legitimising this organisation who continue not to love their neighbours in any way!

I’ve just scanned the Belfast Tele; 18 venues, hundreds of thousands celebrating, without any discernable trouble, even at the ‘traditional’ Ardoyne flash point. Deals between the communities had been brokered.

Jesu, imagine living in a community where ‘leaders’ had to be appointed to broker ‘peace deals’ with your near neighbours to avert violence and bloodshed.
The Peace Dividend appears to be intact.
No major incidents, the day went well.
For this let us all be grateful.

On the eve of the 11th, Fire Fighters attended 200 incidents, up 49% from the previous year; there was some fire damage to houses,and it is reported that one crew was attacked LEAVING an incident.
Many have already commented on the menacing symbolism of giant uncontrolled bonfires, and thousands in quasi military uniforms marching to the warlike, and to many ears, threatening, beat of the Lambeg drum.
The undercurrent of menace is always there.

The Lady Who Makes My Every Waking Moment A Joy is from Belfast.
It hardly matters from which side of the Great Divide (or none) she comes.
In this family, we are all too aware of the situation in the North of Ireland.

The not so subliminal message which comes to the surface on Gala Days like this is that the UDA and the IRA have not gone away.
In a flash it could all kick off again, if ‘demands’ from both sides are not met.
You walk on eggshells coated in Semtex when you negotiate with politicians from the North.
Just ask Treeza May.

Curry’s PC World had to remove this week’s opening hours notice from their shop because for Wed 12th it had written:- ‘The Battle of the Boyne; Closed.’
Sinn Fein naturally objected, arguing that it should have read:- ‘Bank Holiday: Closed’.
The sign was altered with Curry’s forced to issue a nervous an apology. Jeez.

Every year at this time, it is customary for one side,whose Supreme Being in flowing robes and long white beard is somehow a different Creator than the other side’s, to take themselves off on holiday, somewhere, anywhere, outside the Province.

Donegal will be chokka with Twelfth ‘Refugees’. The air all along the Costas will ring to the unmistakable raw (but somehow disarmingly mellifluous) tones of the Norn Ireland accents.

The Good Friday agreement, Stormont, power sharing, the Peace Walls; a fragile truce appears to have been brokered, which was tested, some would say to the limits,yesterday, and survived, if only just.
I have no doubt that hundreds of thousands are having a great week of joyful celebration.
I have no doubt that Norn Ireland Protestants renewed their vows to their faith, and had a ball demonstrating their loyalty to the Crown and ‘Britain’. This morning, they have every right to believe that they are ‘The people.’
Good luck to them, I say.
Yet they will climb into their working clothes and step back into Austerity Britain reality once more, and the Establishment which created this false dichotomy will relax , and continue to reward the rich, while poor women can’t afford sanitary towels, and abortion and same sex marriages are the work of Demons.

Divide and conquer, the British Empire’s preferred tool of oppression.
Set the natives against each other, and they are weakened and therfore controllable.
In Norn Irn, It is too late, IMHO, to reverse it.

Palestine, Cyprus, India..they have form, the Brits.
Set worker against worker, and the Oligarchy triumphs.

“Coney Island
Coming down from Downpatrick
Stopping off at St. John’s Point
Out all day birdwatching
And the craic was good
Stopped off at Strangford Lough
Early in the morning
Drove through Shrigley taking pictures
And on to Killyleagh
Stopped off for Sunday papers at the Lecale District,
Just before Coney Island

On and on, over the hill to Ardglass
In the jam jar, autumn sunshine, magnificent
And all shining through

Stop off at Ardglass for a couple of jars of
Mussels and some potted herrings in case
We get famished before dinner

On and on, over the hill and the craic is good
Heading towards Coney Island

I look at the side of your face as the sunlight comes
Streaming through the window in the autumn sunshine
And all the time going to Coney Island I’m thinking,
Wouldn’t it be great if it was like this all the time.’

When I left the central belt in the 80s I was under the impression that the Orange Order was a spent force, a relict of an unhappy past, dying out. Despite having been brought up in Lanarkshire, I had had no family connection with the Orange Order and no one I knew had any connection either.

I had never seen an Orange Walk either, until one unpleasant, but brief, encounter with a Walk while on a shopping trip to Glasgow. I found myself trapped on a pavement with other reluctant observers until we were able gladly to escape. Then for the first time, I had a taste of the fear and threat that were experienced by Catholic areas, when these noisy and intimidating marchers invaded the streets where they lived. I remember the atmosphere seemed to crackle with hostility which for some reason appeared to extend to the unwilling bystanders like myself, trapped there.

I thought then, and think now, that such demonstrations, whether or not resulting in violence, should be banned. The intimidatory intention was clear. Public order is simply relying on the target group keeping the peace and not responding to the inflammatory nature of these marches and that is not fair.

it is divisive as other commenters have said and I have to wonder why the Orange Order, that had seemed to me to be of weakening significance all those years ago, appears to have received a considerable boost recently to its profile – by the very people who wouldn’t have them anywhere near their sandstone villas and leafy avenues. Tories have always ruthlessly thrived on division and will use any nefarious practices to exacerbate difference. I think this apparent restoration of Orange Order influence is part of the establishment’s cynical strategy.

Hearteningly, JG, the numbers appear to have dwindled in Scotland as Religious zealousness, like kids playing football from the moment that they can support themselves on two feet, is on the decline, as modern life has so much more to offer young people than attaching themselves to an established group, gang, or ‘culture’ that is well by its sell by date.

A thought, and there must be statistics to provide the answer.
How many of the so called ‘professional classes’ were killed during the thirty year Reign of Terror in Northern Ireland?
I know Belfast fairly well, but I cannot recall marches passing through the leafy inner city streets where the lawyers, accountants, doctors and University lecturers choose to live.
It appears to be the working class poorly educated who are attracted to, or are recruited by these warring factions, and as a consequence the brutal pointless internecine loss of life seems almost exclusively to have been visited upon the poorest in Belfast, London/Derry, and flashpoints throughout the Province.
Divide and conquer.
Is there a breakdown by social class/ employment of the 3500 dead during the madness?

There is always an undercurrent of menace associated with these ‘celebrations’.
I observed that WM negotiations with Northern Irish politicians is like walking on eggshells coated with Semtex.
The unspoken threat of civil unrest and more is always there.
The outrageous 11th Bonfires screams Sectarian defiance and a return to murderous lawlessness is only a heart beat away.

I’m not sure about how many of the Professional Classes died during “The Troubles”, Jack, but I DO know this. A very dear friend (now deceased) grew up in Belfast during the worst of the violence. He was the son of an Ulster TV Executive and a teacher (protestants, not that it matters) and went to Queens University before moving to Yorkshire to train as a teacher himself. For the first few years of his time in England, he would throw himself to the ground whenever he heard a car backfire. I can say without fear of contradiction that whilst he was not killed by it, he certainly experienced the violence and the “hate-fest” of the marching season at first hand, even in his somewhat “sheltered” upbringing.

My apologies, Wendy.
I have worked in Belfast, and my brothers and sisters in law, and indeed many of their cousins were. professionals’, and studied at Queens.
There was a universal wariness during the particularly mad times, when just to go about your business, shopping, dining out, and so on always had an element of risk no matter your place on any societal pyramid.
It occurred to me that ‘No Go’ areas, kerbs painted red white and blue, Union Flags on lamp posts, green white and orange and Tricolours, were almost exclusively in ‘working class’ estates, and most of the Loyalist and Republican ‘foot soldiers’ were recruited from these hot spots.
Four of my in laws are electronic engineers, yet they we never approached, never mind involved in terrorist activities. Only on remains and works in Belfast, sadly.
Malone Road in Belfast is literally minutes away from Falls Road and Shankhill Road, yet the leafy mansions of this well known ‘posh’ area never seemed to experience major incidents or marches.
I may be wrong.
Nevertheless, you haven’t lived until you have been roused from your slumber by a helicopter hovering yards above the bedroom ceiling at 3 in the morning.
It scared the bejiasus out of this scribe, believe you me!

Just to add to my post above:
My father in law joined The Royal Marines At the start of world war 2 and was a member of the RMB for the duration of the war and beyond and he was based in Deal, Kent. It was a sad day for him when the IRA bombed the Royal marine’s School of Music building in Deal, killing11 bandsmen and severely injuring 21 others.
Although this happened 28 years ago, to this day there are family members whose lives were wrecked who will never forget or forgive that atrocity..

I’m actually on holiday in Deal at the moment. Come down every year out of respect for dad and to attend the RM concert and the re-dedication of the RM Bandstand which was presented to the Marines and people of Deal through money raised from donations and contributions.

They follow the party whip and back ALL of it without hesitation. Just so people who voted pro Tory in those regions are are reminded? You get who and what you vote for.

When Westminster government legislation comes for you (and it WILL), it may be worth your while pondering a few questions. Who will be left that is able enough to help you? Where were you when they needed your help?

Why should they stand beside you when hardship knocks on your door?

Better Together has had almost three years to deliver. It hasn’t happened. Instead the UK has gone into a societal, constitutional, political and economic downward spiral of the very worst nightmare. This is nowhere near the end of that story. It’s going to get worse, much worse.

Next time you go to a ballot, think about that and think about how much worse it could be without a Scottish Government who, to this point, have softened the blows for the Scottish electorate by offsetting and mitigating the very worst effects of UK gov. legislation. They cannot do so indefinitely. Their ability to stave off the worst will come to an end inevitably. Only you can give them the power and the mandate to put an end to that situation and begin repairing decades of damage.

The penny will not drop, Sam, until they are confronted with the:-‘and then they came for me’ phase of the syndrome.
They have had the best of both worlds as they see it. Vote SNP in the SGE, and benefit from no tuition fees, no prescription charges, no bridge tolls, but as good Unionists vote Red Blue or Yellow Tory in the UKGE.
The Holyrood Administration cannot forever mitigate he worst excesses of the WM Austerity administration.
The Brexshit is about to hit the fan.
There will be a weeping and gnashing of teeth as Dante’s Inferno opens up and sucks them into eternal damnation of their own making.
There is redemption should they choose to repent. Vote YES next time.
I’ve gone all Biblical..I wonder why?

Like a snowball down a mountain, like a wheel within a wheel, Sam.
NS getting on with the day job, fighting for the rights and democratic will of the citizens of Scotland.
Lovin’ it.
Off to Loch Lomond now with the Canadians and various relatives. I feel Cullen Skink and Galloway trout may be the order of the day.
The native Canadian declares Scotland to be ‘awesome.’ Praise indeed.
Wait ’til he sees Ben Lomond at sunset.
We are blessed to live in such a wonderful country. It’s a pity Rennie Dugdale Davidson Baillie et al., think that Scotland is shite.
It’s comin’ yet for a’ that, Macart.

Those 3 are loyal to themselves they prefer Scotland to be ruled by england because it benefits them they talk about being us ruled by Brussels if we left the uk yet staying means being ruled by england something to remember next time any of us is debteting with anyone from the 38% of leavers up here in the near future

You touched on it, Paul, but the truth is that the Orange vote was sought after by the Tories right up to the 70’s.

I can remember it and the message was not subtle.

What is concerning from Ruth Davidson is that she will return to this “division” to secure votes.

40 years on, Scotland is a different place … and while I don’t downplay the gravity of Davidson’s folly in this practice, for some in the audience will respond to the “Message”, namely those who have retreated to GSTQ, FTP, WATP … rump of “Empire” Brits.

They are simply “No Surrender” Unionists ….. I recall a line from a movie years ago when two of the lead performers were discussing why they couldn’t convince certain folk to believe them regarding the impending danger which was so obvious to them … and one actor stated ” well they are just walk-aways ….. when God was giving out brains, some just couldn’t wait …. they got up and walked away “

Not seeing much evidence of partnership, respect or unity about a naked attempt to steal said partners resources and assets. That’s the word right? Steal? To appropriate without permission or prior agreement. Pretty much think most pro indy commentators may have mentioned a thing or two about Westminster’s track record on appropriation during indyref 1 and here we have a prime example of a QED moment. Better Together… not really living up to billing.

We can stop this. We can put an end to these actions, but it needs your help. When (not if), the Scottish Government comes looking for your specific mandate and permission, the choice will be YOURS to make.

Who do you trust with the stewardship of your resources, your interests, your lives, needs and aspirations? Westminster or Holyrood?

Well remembered, Sam. A great piece by WoS at the time, and even more poignant today.

Perhaps we should reproduce the abstract from Jack Straw’s views on ‘ The English and British Today’ from circa 2001 in Paul’s excellent blog. Quite astonishingly there is a whole’generation’ of 16-17 year old scots citizens who were not evn a twinkle in their mothers’ eyes when Straw, the man along with Malcolm Rifkind who was caught in a newspaper sting ‘selling’ his name and influence to bogus Chinese businessmen for £5k to £10k a day last year, and who was a feckless Foreign Secretary when Blair was worshipping at the feet of George W in the run up to the illegal war against Iraq, and all that Chilcot jazz.

This should be resurrected, and repeated as often as his ‘power devolved is power retained’ imperial diktat is, so that the ‘once in the next generation’ young Scots realise what Essex Man, of whom Straw is one, really thinks about Scotland’s palce and subjugated role in this completely corrupt and dead Union.

“The English are potentially very aggressive, and of course have used that propensity to subjugate Ireland, Wales, and Scotland, and then we used it in Europe and without Europe.
You have within the UK three small nations under the cosh of the English.
These small nations have naturally sought expression by a very explicit idea of nationhood.
You have this very dominant other nation England, ten times bigger than the others, which is self- confident and therefore no need to be explicit about it.
I think as we move into this new century people’s sense of Englishness will become more articulated.”

There can seldom have been a more patronising piece of ‘exceptionalism’ written by a serving Foreign Secretary about ‘these small nations’ which as we are all aware are described as equal partners when it suits them, than this piece of Imperialist toss.

In Straw’s eyes, size is everything.

There are more people crammed on to England’s piece of this Britannic Rock by ten times as much, than the colonies of Wales Northern Ireland and Scotland, therefore England’s right and ‘manifest destiny’ to ‘subjugate’ the populations of these the smaller populations, is totally justified. That’s how the Empire was won after all. ‘Subjugate’ the bastards into submission.
I urge all who read this to repeat this astonishing piece of ‘English’ arrogance as often as possible anywhere in the ether.

It sums up Mundell’s,Davidson’s, Dugdale’s, and Rennie’s pea brained take on the world of Better Together Unionism viwed through ‘subjugated’ tinted Unionist glasses.

There are more of them than us, so we are fucked. Nothing to see here, move on. Aye, right.

Macart, you ask:-

‘What kind of country do you want to live in?’

Certainly not a fake country where we are smothered at birth by force of the superior numbers of our Southern neighbours, that’s for sure.

PS. We dined on the bonnie bonnie banks last night.
Loch Lomond was magnificent and obliged by treating out visitors to its meteorological versatility by running through all four seasons of the year in just over three hours. Drizzle, the world famous Scotch Mist, and as a finale, a magnificent sunset behind the Ben.
We live in a smashing wee land, IMHO.
The food was magnificent too.

As I commented Jack, it’s not as if people weren’t warned. They were. They simply chose not to believe or listen. Their reasons for this were their own, but there is no denying the evidence when it is enacted before their own eyes.

Mr Tickell has hit the nail firmly on the head regarding the status of those powers and assets, the nature of the repeal bill and repatriation of those competences. This IS a power grab and the devolved nations are essentially being told to sit down and shut up. Westminster will decide… etc. The powers concerning clean energy have already been taken back by Westminster, but as we’re aware that is not Westminster’s greatest crime regarding Scotland’s assets, powers and borders. No, that particular privilege is reserved for the moving of Scotland’s maritime border, effectively gifting 6000 miles of Scotland’s seabed to England in 1999.

I don’t recall that in New Labour’s manifesto (GE or SGE) back in the day. I don’t recall permission being sought of the Scottish electorate, nor even our opinion on the matter. New Labour simply ‘appropriated without permission’ Scottish assets (stole) and placed responsibility for those assets elsewhere. Those assets are the legacy of every Scottish citizen to future generations, they belong to no individual and are only in the care of each generation and the stewardship of the governments they elect. Westminster simply took them without permission. We had our ‘executive’ in 99′. Mr Dewar I believe was our First Minister… Readers can make of that what they will.

Perhaps the parliamentarians definition of partnership and unity can be found in dictionaries we’re not familiar with?

It is a chilling and stubbornly true assertion to point out that the 85% firmly believe that WM has the right and democratic mandate to close Holyrood tomorrow if they so wish, possibly under the Repeal Act and Henry VIII parliamentary easements, and that the Scottish Government is only ‘allowed’ to continue subject to the permission and good grace of Mother England.
Davidson Dugdale and Rennie would enthusiastically support the dissolution of our parliament.
That, as you say, will be ‘it’

Primarily they hate themselves,they lack confidence and hide behind bluster and bullying you wouldn,t see them banging their drums in downtown Basra where the “heroes” retreated ignominiously in the middle of the night and only after the “Mahdi” gave them permission.There was a united Irish movement involving both communities back in the day that looked as if it would take root,the then prime ministerwas so worried that he called on general Sir George Knox note the surname and asked what could be done,his re-ply was leave it to me I will play the Orange card,the rest as they say is history.

There were differences between the March for Independence in June and the Orange Walk in July.

In Glasgow on 1st July, 32 streets were closed for 6,000 marchers. In Glasgow on 3rd June, the only closure was the bottom end of Saltmarket at the finish (for 17,000 marchers).

Stewards on the first were given a briefing by the Police who told us that the prime responsibility was the safety of the marchers. A Police spokesman at the second said that their prime responsibility was the safety of the public.

As diabloandco said in the first of these comments, crossing the road at an Orange Walk is dangerous. When the March for Independence reached George Square, I saw an elderly lady looking as if she wished to cross the road to get to Queen Street Station. So, I simply raised my left arm and called out to the marchers to let the lady cross. The marchers cleared a path and smiled at her.

I lost any patience I had with this hate mob in the early hours of Sept the 15th 2014,
The disgraceful Scenes in George square were truly sickening , while i was growing up we thought of them as just a colourful parade , but scratch the surface and its just hate , hate for everyone who is not one of them , this hatefest should be banned not next week but right now .